Akhter Ahsen, Ph.D. is a therapist with a vision. This vision
translated into the formulation of Image Psychology, spanning
the disciplines  psychology, clinical and experimental,
philosophy, literature, mythology, sports and learning 
and the publication of over 30 books in the field. Dr. Ahsens
work in imagery, specifically the eidetic image, began in
the 1950s and has continued through this new millennium.

The 4th American Imagery
Conference.
Joseph Campbell and Akhter Ahsen

In
the late 1970s Dr. Ahsen founded and is the editor
of The Journal of Mental Imagery,
a prestigious scientific journal which deals with imagery
and its advancement of human consciousness. At that time
he also founded the International Imagery Association, a
not for profit organization, which promotes conferences,
seminars, workshops to further a similar aim. In 1980, at
The 4th American Imagery Conference, sponsored by the IIA,
Joseph Campbell, the noted mythologist, related to the audience,
I am a storyteller about mythology, a synthesizer,
while you (Ahsen) are an originator.

Akhter
Ahsen and Joseph Campbell met casually one day on the Sarah
Lawrence campus where Campbell was a Professor for many
years. Joseph Campbell was already a very well known lecturer
and author in his field, although the meeting preceded the
Bill Moyers interviews with him on mythology which
brought the topic into millions of homes throughout America.
(This series still remains one of Channel 13s most
popular ever.) Joseph Campbell was a genuine human being
whose eyes lit up when telling a story and who had a lightness
to his demeanor which reflected a spirit of connectedness,
a life force that had spontaneity and playfulness in it.
When Dr. Ahsen, at that time not known to Professor Campbell,
rung him up at Sarah Lawrence and asked if he could come
over and read him a piece of his work, Campbell said, Sure,
unaware that Dr. Ahsen would be over in just a few moments
as Ahsens Image Institute was only ten minutes away.
Within a few more moments Dr. Ahsen began reading from
Manhunt in the Desert, a work that Joseph Campbell would
later write in the introduction: You did not write
this; you received it.

Ernest
R. Hilgard
and Akhter Ahsen
at Stanford University

Over the years
Dr. Ahsen has been associated with men and women of distinguished
stature
in their fields. Dr. Ernest R. Hilgard, Professor Emeritus
of Stanford University and past President of the APA, has
stated regarding eidetics, The principles of this
approach rely on bright visual images and the feeling of
reality they project inside the mind, so that
the inner and outer realities are bound together in the
body of a single image operation...(one becomes aware) of
the fascination inherent in imagery, the tricks that it
can play with consciousness, and the benefits that may lie
in its understanding and use.

The two men discussed
many issues in psychology over the years and Dr. Hilgard,
Senior Associate Editor of the JMIs
distinguished International Board of Editors has also said,
Akhter Ahsen, a psychologist active as a clinician,
experimentalist and theoretician ...As Ahsens study
established important links between various constellations
of the myth, a far-reaching clinical interpretation of the
underlying motivational principles emerges. Ahsen invites
the leader to enrich the concept of the image well beyond
any prior concept he or she may have had.

Akhter Ahsen and Gloria Steinem

Akhter Ahsen and Tahmina Dultana

In 1990 when the IIA was co-sponsoring
the Conference, Women in Psychology, along with
Lioness, an organization concerned with feminine consciousness,
Gloria Steinem met with Ahsen and was most supportive of the
movement, stating, By distracting the surface of the
mind and using imagery...allows us to re-enter past experiences,
and understand unexamined emotions. Continuing its interest
in feminine psychology, the IIA, in 1999, sponsored a luncheon
with Tahmina Dultana , the Prime Minister of Womens
Affairs in Pakistan, who talked about her passion of women
struggling, achieving  struggling, not achieving and
struggling  throughout the world. This luncheon's agenda
called for an emphasis on International Rights for Women.
Dr. Ahsens many books have dealt with feminine consciousness
from Eastern and Western perspectives  from Greek and
Hindu mythology to current modern times. His philosophy accentuates
the development of women as critical to forming a new world
consciousness that advocates the rich beauty of the image
within that binds us not only to the feminine, but to humanity
as a whole.

Dr. Karan Singh and Akhter Ahsen
at
New Mythology of Consciousness Conference

Finally, on June 21, 2001
Dr. Karan Singh, world renowned scholar and previous Ambassador
to the United States, chaired Dr. Ahsens first in
a series of workshops, Black Horse at Midnight:
New Mythology of Consciousness in New York City.
To quote Akhter Ahsen from this event: Out of the
vast velvety darkness of midnight emerges the shadow of
a horse captured in the lens of the all-encompassing telescope
of the minds eye. This glimmer in consciousness
is a primordial imprint much like the first waves that
rippled and flowed through the gases of a young universe.
Rooted in the beginning of time these waves are the seeds
from which all consciousness blossoms and flows.

Akhter Ahsens rich mind continues
to flow, the scientistic and poetic, merging and playing
with imagery that advances human consciousness in the world
today. With the philosophers wit and wisdom we are
indeed graced to have his presence and his vision which
is revealed in his many written works and in his lectures
and seminars.